Facebook, Google and other big tech giants are about to face a “reckoning,” state attorneys general warn

Some of the country’s most influential state attorneys general are signaling they’re willing to take action against Facebook, Google and other tech giants, warning that the companies have grown too big and powerful -- and that Washington has been too slow to respond. Some state officials feel that Washington bears some of the blame for the tech industry’s string of scandals in the first place. Lawmakers in Congress long have struggled to adopt a national law targeting tech giants’ data-collection practices, while federal agencies have allowed many of the headline-grabbing mishaps at Facebook and Google to go unpunished. In response, states like Arizona and Mississippi now are taking aim at Google for the way it collects and monetizes web users’ data. The District of Columbia, meanwhile, is challenging Facebook’s business practices in court. And there are “numerous bipartisan discussions” among Democrats and Republicans about other areas where attorneys general can coordinate their attention on big tech. “We are in a moment where the federal government’s level of effectiveness and engagement on a range of issues, on technology, consumer protection and privacy, is limited,” said Phil Weiser, the Democratic attorney general of Colorado. Absent federal intervention, he said, “states in general or state AGs are able to act.”